The DanceMediaAcademy is a project initiated by the Kunstfest in 2007 and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The Academy wants to offer young dancers, choreographers and media artist a platform for interdisciplinary research. During a two to three week long workshop in Weimar, the participants develop new performances – working with movement, sound, light, space and projections - which are then presented to the general public at the end of the project. Openness, exchange, transparency and dialogue between the individual disciplines form the centre of the pedagogical concept, with which the Kunstfest wants to acknowledge its interest in advanced art forms and the promotion of young artists standing at the beginning of their professional careers.
DanceMediaAcademy 2010 – Space in Motion
Media artists handle hardware (equipment), dancers use their body. Connecting these two worlds with each other will be one of the important future challenges to the performing arts. Focal point of this year’s DanceMediaAcademy will be the medium space – the historical staircase and the ateliers of the main building of the Bauhaus-University in Weimar, designed by Henry van de Velde. Using this – world cultural heritage – location, young artists from the Bauhaus-University Weimar, the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts as well as the Academy for the Performing Arts Kraków - Dance Department Bytom will develop a DanceMedia-Performance.
In preparation, the students of the Bauhaus-University attended the seminar “Space in motion” which introduced them to the field of media and movement also discussing different techniques and software. Students of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts took part in a VideoDanceWorkshop which discussed the basics of media as well as the interaction between camera and dance.
A two-week long workshop-phase in Weimar in August will bring the three groups together. During this time, they will develop an interdisciplinary performance. A public presentation at the end of the workshop will present the results to a general public.
Artistic director of this year’s DanceMediaAcademy are Stefan Kraus, Lutz Gregor and Dieter Heitkamp.
Stefan Kraus is the co-founder of the Video-Art-Group MXZEHN. He works as a video artist and design consultant and is a lecturer at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. Lutz Gregor works as a film director, author and lecturer. He specialises in the genres of dance video and film. At present he is a visiting lecturer at the Palucca School Dresden and works as an associated teacher at the D.A.N.C.E Program. Dieter Heitkamp, who will oversee the project as a coach, is the director of the Department of Contemporary and Classical Dance at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
Public Performance:
Sunday, 29. August 2010, 8 pm, Bauhaus-University, Main Building (Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8)
A cooperation between the Bauhaus-University Weimar and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts